U.K-based Deliveroo raises $385 Mn at valuation of $2 bn

The British food delivery company Deliveroo received $385 Million in a Series-F round at a valuation of $2 billion. The investment was led by T. Rowe Price Associates and Fidelity Management & Research with existing investors being DST Global, General Catalyst, Index Ventures and Accel Partners.

With the new investment, the company plans to make expansion in technology team; and is also looking to cater to more countries and remote areas globally.

The company’s valuation has doubled since last year. In August 2016, it raised $275m at a valuation of $1.1 billion. The company has raised $474.6 million since its founding in 2012, according to venture funding data from Crunchbase.

Currently, Deliveroo operates in more than 150 cities across 12 countries and has about 30,000 delivery riders.

The company is also planning to expand its “Editions” (previously called RooBox) programme and will partner with delivery-only restaurants.

Deliveroo has been trying different delivery models in the U.K. Earlier this year, it began trialing a subscription service — targeting at its most frequent and loyal customers.

Dubbed ‘Deliveroo Plus’ and only available to existing customers, the new option sees Deliveroo waive its £2.50 per delivery fee in favor of a subscription costing £8.99 per month or £89 per year.

The delivery platform competes with Amazon Restaurants in the restaurant food delivery space. Amazon Restaurant has recently launched its service in the U.K. following a U.S. launch and is available to Amazon Prime subscribers only.

According to analysts NPD Group, the delivery sector rose almost 10% to 599m visits in the UK last year, while total visits to restaurants and other dining venues rose by just 1%. The delivery channel was worth £3.6bn last year, a 6% increase on 2015 and 50% more than in 2008.